Improvement in ice-floors for refrigerators



UNITE@ STATES PATENT OFFICE.

HERRMANN BRAUNLIGH, or sTREATor., ILLINOIS.

IMPROVEMENT IN ICE-FLOORS FOR REFRIGERATORS.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent N o. 167,980, dated September 21, 1875; application led August 10, 1675.

To all whom/t may concern:

Be it known that I, HERRMANN BRAUNLIGH, of Streator, in the county of La Salle and State of Illinois, have invented an Improvement in Ice-Floors for Refrigerators, of which the following is a specification:

The nature of my invention relates to an improvement in that variety of refrigerators wherein theice is supported in the upper chamber by a slatted floor, through the interstices of which the cold air mav fall into the preserving-chamber below; and its Objectis to keep said chamber and its contents dry and free from water dripping down, either from the melting of the ice or the condensa-- tion of moisture in the upper chamber or on the iioor. To this end my invention consists in the peculiar construction and combination of the several parts, as more fully hereinafter set forth and claimed.

Figure 1 is a perspective view of a portion of a refrigerator ice-tloor. Fig. 2 is a crosssection.`

In the drawing, A A represent transverse stringers, extending from side of the refrigerator near the front and rear walls thereof, the front one being a little the lowest in plane ofthe two. B is the joist, let partially into the stringers at regular intervals, which j oists carry or support the ice. Each joist has fastened to its upper edge a sheet-metal strip, G, having its sides downwardly curved. At each side ofajoist a wooden guttena, having a sheetmetal lining', c', is let deeply into the strin gers, and above each gutter a wide sheetmetal trough, D, is partially let into the stringers. Across the front ends ofthe troughs and gutters, and underneath them, extends a sheetmetal gutter, b, resting in a wooden one, b', which gutters are respectively provided with conducting-pipes c c', to carry away the water collecting in them. The strips G overlap at the sides the adjacent troughs D, and the water resultant from the melting of the ice falls into the latter, and thence is discharged into the gutter b, from which it is carried oi by the pipe c outside the refrigerator.

Sheet metal being a good conductor, the moisture in the air in the refrigerator is condensed upon the sheet-metal gutters, troughs, and strips, from the lowest point of each of which it would naturally drip. To catch this drip of condensation, I place a sheet-,metal trough, a, under each trough D, and for the same reason I back each trough a with its wooden bottom a. The latter alone might be used for the purpose but for the fact that it would absorb moisture, and in time would decay and become offensive, hence the necessity of the metallic lining c. The gutter b has a steep pitch, so as to carry off the water quickly, and the wooden'gutter b under it is lsimply to catch and carry away any drip of condensation from the former.

What I claim as my invention is In a refrigerator, substantially as described, the combination, with the stringers A' and joists B, of the curved metal strips C, metal gutters I) c b, and wooden gutters c and b', and the pipes c c', as and for the purpose set forth. HERRMANN BRAUN LIGH Witnesses WM. H. LoTz, GEO. W. FERRIS. 

